Eight New Technical Standards Published

Eight New Technical Standards Published

Topics include 450mm, Display, Anti-Counterfeiting, and Photovoltaics

SEMI has published eight new technical standards applicable to the semiconductor, MEMS, FPD and photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing industry. The new standards, developed by technical experts from equipment and materials suppliers, device manufacturers and other companies participating in the SEMI International Standards Program, are available through the SEMIViews Standards product, available at www.semi.org/semiviews.

The new standards, part of the July 2010 publication cycle, join more than 790 standards that have been published by SEMI during the past 36 years.

“The release of these eight new SEMI International Standards covers a wide range of applications, including display, PV, and 450 mm wafers,” said James Amano, Director, SEMI International Standards. “These standards address issues that are active today, and those that will arise when and if the industry moves to larger-diameter silicon.”

Short Descriptions

SEMI D59, 3D Display Terminology

SEMI D60, Test Method of Surface Scratch Resistance for FPD Polarizing Film and Its Materials

SEMI T20.3, Specification for Service Communication for Authentication of Semiconductors and Related Products

Long Descriptions

SEMI D59: This terminology standard is directly related to the FPD supply chain as well as retail and their consumers. There are many terminologies related to 3D displays that are not clearly defined, and communication problems happen often. This Standard defines the basic and most necessary terms of the 3D display (especially for those different from 2D displays).

SEMI D60: This standard helps manufacturers of polarizing film and its related materials to develop improved surface-scratch-resistant films, and to test the products accurately. This standard also promotes efficient and consistent communication between FPD components manufacturers to other materials and components manufacturers, FPD panel, or FPD set manufacturers, concerning surface toughness of the materials.

SEMI M76: Silicon wafer standards reduce product development cost by setting common technical specifications for equipment and silicon manufacturers. Process test wafer standards reduce development costs and enable availability of a uniform global wafer supply for R&D with lower investment. Use of a standard process test wafer reduces or even eliminates duplication of efforts and provides a common basis for new equipment characterization.

SEMI E156: As the semiconductor industry transitions to 450 mm, the development of the standardized the stocker interface to the AMHS system requires global cooperation. As an international effort, SEMI standard E156 allows AMHS and carrier suppliers to efficiently collaborate on the development of 450 mm FOUP storage and transportation systems for semiconductor factories. By standardizing the interface dimensions of the stocker and the AMHS systems, SEMI E156 signifies faster product qualification which will lead to better factory integration and lower cost of ownership.

SEMI E157: The front-end process equipment in 300 mm fabs uses “recipes” to control wafer processing. The next generation of process advancements requires a granular view of the process execution. This new software standard provides a common paradigm for equipment to report data associated with recipe step execution without requiring equipment to change existing recipe definitions.

SEMI E158: For a 450 FOUP to operate in a semiconductor factory, it must effectively interface with factory AMHS systems. SEMI standard E158 promotes the standardization of the overall FOUP envelop and also the dimensional interface between the FOUP and the load ports, delivery systems, and stockers. This allows for suppliers to focus on product design and verification and reduces the cost and time for a customer to qualify a product.

SEMI PV4: The thin film photovoltaic industry now uses varying substrate sizes. It is commonly said that unification of the substrate into one size is difficult, considering variation of usage and handling of the panel, and so on. From an equipment standpoint, developing equipment for all the substrate size variation is a big waste for the industry.

SEMI T20.3: The semiconductor industry has lacked standardized methods to validate the integrity of goods from non-certified distributors or suppliers. The purpose of this specification is to describe the system architecture aspect of an authentication process to establish the trusted identity of products or objects. This specification is one element of a suite of standards aimed at enabling automated, reliable, and secure product authentication for the semiconductor industry, thereby reducing the presence of illegal counterfeit items in the marketplace.